World Juniors Today: Welcome to Ottawa as the tournament begins in 2025

The 2025 World Juniors begin today in Ottawa and The athlete will accompany you every step of the way. Along with daily analysis from our potential experts Corey Pronman and Scott Wheeler, we present World Juniors Today to set each day’s game plan. The athleteSenators beat reporter Julian McKenzie and editor Sarah Jean Maher will both be on hand to document the sights and sounds of the tournament.

Here’s a quick introduction to your two intrepid World Juniors Today guides for the next week and a half.

McKenzie: I remember watching the Canada-Russia semifinal in 2009 upstairs at my grandparents’ house on a small TV in their bedroom. I remember watching 16 year old Rasmus Dahlin with some old friends at the 2017 World Juniors in Montreal and we ended up on the JumboTron! And now I can write about the tournament for The Sporty! The WJC is a holiday tradition that so many hockey fans, including myself, enjoy. It’s an honor to be able to cover the games and write features about the players.

This year’s tournament will be a lot of fun to watch. Canada is always under pressure, especially this year considering how much talent it cut from its roster. But what about the Americans and potential 2025 No. 1 pick James Hagens? The Swedes are also a power. Nine players who won silver at last year’s tournament are back. It’s not lost on me to witness potential greatness in person and I’m looking forward to the start of the World Juniors.

Mower: I still have a scar on my right hand from accidentally scratching myself while celebrating Jordan Eberle’s dramatic equalizer for Team Canada the last time Ottawa hosted the World Junior Championships. It is one of my favorite songs “Where were you?” sports moments, and I was a high school student on my parents’ couch, dreaming of working in the media, which unknowingly would lead me to sports journalism in the capital in the near future.

Sixteen years later, the World Juniors are back in Ottawa (the city I still call home) and I’m excited to be a part of it The athlete‘s reporting. I’ve covered several World Juniors tournaments over the years, but there’s nothing quite like covering the best time of the season in your own city. From my early days covering the Ottawa 67’s at TD Place (then the Civic Centre) to covering the NHL from the Canadian Tire Center in Kanata for nearly four Senators seasons (not forgetting the ice-cold Hockey 100 Classic in December 2017 ) I have been lucky enough to travel a lot in the cold capital.

Canada is hungrier than ever for gold after last year’s devastating quarter-final defeat. Team USA has never won consecutive gold medals. The No. 1 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft is up in the air. Not to mention the many exciting NHL candidates from Sweden, Czech Republic, Finland, Slovakia and Kazakhstan (!) that we will see in the front row. There is a lot to discover this winter.

Today’s schedule

• Sweden vs. Slovakia, 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT
• Germany vs. USA, 2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT
• Switzerland vs. Czech Republic, 5:00 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. PT
• Canada vs. Finland, 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT

Oliver Bonk, Denton Mateychuk and Maveric Lamoureux react to Canada’s quarterfinal loss to the Czech Republic in January 2024. (Christinne Muschi / The Canadian Press via AP)

“Resilient” Bonk returns for Canada

It was a fluke that eliminated Canada early from the Junior World Championships last year. Still, defender Oliver Bonk says his team has something to prove on home soil.

“I’m definitely not happy with how last year went or how we did or how well we did,” he said of Canada’s heartbreaking 3-2 quarterfinal loss to the Czech Republic last January.

Jakub Stancl’s wrist shot came off Bonk’s stick with 11.7 seconds left in the game and went past goalkeeper Mathis Rousseau, sending the Czech Republic into the semifinals. It was just an unfortunate upswing for Canada.

“It’s just sad to see a surge like that, but it’s happening,” Bonk said. “I scored goals in the draw this year to win the game against the boys, as it always happens. It’s really unfortunate that this happened to you, but there’s nothing you can do about it.

“Right now, about 24 hours later, you’re still really sad about it, but it’s happening.”

Bonk, a 2023 first-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers and son of former NHL player Radek Bonk, is one of four returning players on Canada’s roster, along with captain Brayden Yager, Carson Rehkopf and Bonk’s London Knights teammate Easton Cowan.

Radek recently told the Ottawa Citizen that Oliver was “devastated” after the loss and condemned the “keyboard warriors” who criticized his son on social media after the game.

Knights defenseman Sam Dickinson remembers his fellow blueliners’ disappointment over his earlier-than-expected exit from the tournament, but says it didn’t bother him for long when the Knights got heated up.

“He is very resilient. When you watch him play, he doesn’t let anything get to him,” said Dickinson, who is also a member of Team Canada this year. “You would have to be disappointed with the piece, but it is such a random piece. There wasn’t much he could have done there. So I know he’s moved on and he’s looking forward to the tournament this year and how much he’s going to be a big part of this team and how he’s going to contribute as well.”

Bonk, Dickinson and Cowan won an OHL championship with the Knights last season, experience Bonk said he can use to take on a leadership role this winter.

“I think (I’ll) definitely try to take a leadership role on the team and kind of steer the guys in the right direction from what maybe we should have done last year and what we could do better this year.” he said.

So what can they do better this time? Bonk says they are “better engaged” and “prepared” in a team that is “more ready this year than last year.” It’s hard to compare teams, but he believes this year’s is stronger and has “no real weaknesses.”

“I think I feel more prepared because I know what to expect,” he said. “So I’ve got to kind of prepare for that, get the team ready for that and just make sure we’re a lot better than we were last year.”

Peter Anholt, part of the Canadian management group, describes this year’s back end as one of the team’s greatest strengths, diverse in toughness and size. Head coach Dave Cameron, who coaches the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s, didn’t know Bonk particularly well at the start of the tournament but is familiar with his abilities.

“All they do down in London is win,” Cameron said. “I know (Bonk) because he’s from Ottawa and I train in Ottawa, I can ask questions. He’s well-known in the community and is a character kid, a good kid and a damn good hockey player.”

Of course, the goal is to win back gold after last year’s disappointment, but doing so in front of family and friends in his hometown – and in the same rink where his father played for 10 seasons with the Senators – would be the experience for this year making it all the more special Bonk.

“It’s going to be really fun,” Bonk said. “Most of my family on my mom’s side lives in Ottawa, so they’ll definitely do their best to watch the games and yeah, I’m excited to have them all here.”– Maher

Check out our preview material

Before the tournament begins, take a moment to read what we wrote as a preview of the World Juniors.

• Team Canada World Junior Selection Camp: Breakdown of cuts, standouts and roster

• Wheelers Team Canada World Junior Selection Camp Notebook: Thoughts on all 32 players who participated

• Who are the top NHL prospects at the 2025 World Juniors? Ranking of the 25 best players

• NHL Draft Stock Watch: How will the 2025 top five fare ahead of the World Juniors?

• Maple Leafs’ Easton Cowan shines for Canada in World Juniors pre-tournament win over Switzerland

• Canada manages to beat Sweden in second World Juniors preseason game: Who stood out?

• Pronman’s five big questions for the 2025 Junior World Cup: Canada’s ability? Sweden’s blue line?

• Jordan Eberle, John Tavares and Canada’s golden triumph at the 2009 World Junior Championships: “Can you believe it?”

(Photo by Oliver Bonk: Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press via AP)